Hold off on Auditor Lite: Competing Eugene measure would muddy waters

In May, Eugene voters will decide whether to approve a charter amendment that would give the city a performance auditor with as much independence as the proposal’s authors could devise. Their intent is to insulate the auditor as completely as possible against interference by the Eugene City Council and city manager. Where the authors see independence, however, critics see a lack of accountability. These critics are well on their way toward getting the City Council to place a competing measure on the May ballot—call it Auditor Lite. The council should pull back from this approach.

The proposal for a hyper-independent auditor, Measure 20-283, reached the ballot by means of an initiative campaign conducted by a group called City Accountability, whose leadership includes several former City Council members.

Under Measure 20-283, the auditor would be elected, and would head an office whose budget would be pegged at 0.1 percent of Eugene’s all-funds budget — which this year would work out to $667,000. This funding mechanism ensures that the City Council couldn’t hobble the auditor by starving the office of funds.

The auditor’s salary would be calculated by a formula based on the pay of other top municipal officials, which at current levels would equal $153,000 a year. This would prevent the council from weakening the auditor by cutting the pay for the position.

And who will audit the auditor? Under Measure 20-283, no one but the voters — and that’s by design. Critics say the result would be a lack of oversight of the kind that is provided to other functions of city government by citizen advisory committees, the City Council or both. It’s possible to conjure scenarios of a rogue auditor, or of an auditor who spends all day in a brew pub. Citizens of Eugene could do nothing about a poorly performing auditor except wait for the end of a four-year election cycle, or launch a recall campaign. …

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Eugene City Council

On Monday, February 12th, 2018, at 7:30 pm, the Eugene City Council voted 5-2 (Clark & Taylor opposed, Semple absent) for Resolution No. 5219 to refer the Citizens for Sensible Oversight proposal for an independent performance auditor to voters on the May 2018 ballot.

On Wednesday, January 24th, 2018, at noon, the Eugene City Council held a fifth work session on the issue of a city auditor:

About This Site

This site is intended to support community efforts to explore having a performance auditor for the City of Eugene.

In particular, this site includes information on the Eugene Performance Auditor Study Group convened by Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis to look at the pros and cons of different ways to establish a performance auditor.

For information about Eugene Mayor Lucy Vinis, her blog, and her monthly dashboard of city efforts, please visit her official page.

For information about the ballot initiative Measure 20-283 by chief petitioners Bonny Bettman McCornack, David Monk and George Brown, please visit CityAccountability.org.

For information about Check and Balances, the nonprofit Bonny Bettman McCornack, David Monk, Paul Nicholson and Wayne Lottinville established “to engage in research, outreach, and education to help guide policy and financial decision making by our community and its elected and non-elected leadership,” please visit Checks-Balances.org.